


Day 2 - Seasons

by moshimichi



Series: ZarcRay Week 2018 [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Seasonal Spirits - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-04 23:04:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14030802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moshimichi/pseuds/moshimichi
Summary: Ray wasn’t going to wait anymore. If Zarc wasn’t going to come to her, it was time to chase him down herself.





	Day 2 - Seasons

“Yuya!”

Ray watched in amusement as the younger spirit spun around, face already set to beaming-overexcited-puppy mode. Really, the boy was too adorable, even if that face was mainly because of the fact that he could get news about Yuzu from her.

“Miss Ray!” he chirped, quickly scrambling for her. Ray held firm as the kid nearly bowled her over in a quick hug. Yuya bounced back after she returned his tight squeeze and smiled at her. “Here for the start of spring?”

She returned the smile indulgingly. “I am. And I see you’re finishing up the preparations to bring the new season.”

Yuya nodded, rubbing his nose bashfully. “Yugo moved on to help Rin with the winds and Serena just passed by with her rain, so I’m just doing some last jobs before following them.

Like Ray, Yuya was a fire spirit, although much younger than she was. As one of nature’s fire spirits, Ray was in charge of bringing a change in temperatures, gradually bringing a rise of heat for spring and summer. Yuya also helped bringing in the warmer temperature, but his duties were a bit different. Rather than bringing along spring, his duties were more along the lines of cleaning up after winter.

As such, Yuya worked under the cold seasons’ domain.

Speaking of which… “Is Zarc still around here?”

She watched as Yuya deflated and fidgeted, guilty expression on his face. Ray had expected as much, seeing as it had been like this for many seasonal transitions, but she had hope.

“I-I’m sorry, Ray,” Yuya said, eyes looking up at her dolefully. “I tried to get him to stay, but he already moved on to the Northern Hemisphere.”

Of course. While Ray had come down to the Southern Hemisphere for spring, Zarc had likely moved up to the Northern Hemisphere to prepare for the colder seasons.

And, as always, her ice-spirit lover had moved on quickly to avoid meeting her.

“B-But!” Ray startled at the sudden outburst, turning her attention back to Yuya. His face was a little pink, embarrassed by his lack of volume control, but he continued determinedly. “I asked Yuto and Yuri to stall him, so he shouldn’t be too far. You can still catch him!”

The older spirit stared for a moment, not really comprehending his words. But when they finally processed, she grinned and ruffled Yuya’s hair vigorously. The boy really was too good to her.

“You definitely have to tell me how you got Yuri to cooperate,” she laughed. Yuya beamed happily, glad to have helped, and Ray swept him up in an affectionate hug. “Thank you. Just for this, I’ll let Yuzu keep you company after she finishes with her flowers. Don’t have  _too_  much fun, though.”

Yuya squeaked indignantly as she winked at him, amused by how red he had become. Giggling, she flew off with a wave, off to catch her wayward boyfriend.

As a spirit who could travel at pretty high speeds, it didn’t take her very long before she found him. Not too long after crossing into the Northern Hemisphere, she found Zarc scolding a highly amused Yuri and an extremely exasperated-looking Yuto.

She…probably didn’t want to know.

“ZARC!”

The spirit jolted, quickly spinning around to gape at her with a deer-in-headlights look. Yuri waved at her happily and Yuto nodded in greeting before both shoved Zarc in her direction and proceeded to flee for their lives. With Ray still speeding towards him and his sudden forward momentum, the ice spirit wasn’t given much of a chance to chase after them.

Ray slammed into him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders in a tight embrace. A grunt was forcefully expelled from his lungs at the impact and Zarc clutched at the back of her dress, careful to not touch bare skin.

“R-Ray?” he wheezed. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be down south starting spring.”

“Idiot!” Ignoring the way her body trembled and how her eyes stung, she pulled back just enough to jab one shaky finger into Zarc’s chest. “If you had just met me at the equator during the temperature transition like we promised, I wouldn’t be up here chasing you down! Do you know how many seasons it’s been since I last saw you?!”

Surprise gave way to guilt and Zarc looked away. After a long, tense pause, he finally answered in a low, barely audible mumble.

“…ty-two…”

“That’s right,” Ray growled, stabbing her finger into his chest again. “One hundred and sixty-two seasons! It’s been over forty years since you started avoiding me!”

“I couldn’t help it, okay?!” he burst, eyes snapping around to glare at her. Pain and guilt and  _longing_  whirled in those yellow depths that she had missed so much. “The last time—The last time I saw you, I—!”

“It was an  _accident_ ,” Ray interrupted firmly. She had known that Zarc had felt terrible about what he had done, so she softened almost instantly the moment he finally looked at her and faced her. That was all she had really wanted. “You were young, a new spirit, and you hadn’t finished your training yet. All spirits have accidents at that age.”

“But I hurt you,” Zarc protested softly, unable to keep the fight from draining from his body. Not when Ray was looking at him so gently. He reached down, fingers hovering uncertainly over the discolored patch of skin on her wrist. “I  _froze_  you. And then I went and caused that giant blizzard-hailstorm hybrid  _in the middle of summer_ —“

“ _Zarc_.”

His words cut off, breath hitching as slim fingers grasped his own. The ice spirit couldn’t even  _breathe_  as she pressed his palm to her cheek, leaning into it as she did so. When nothing happened, Zarc exhaled shakily and gave a hesitant stroke along her cheek with his thumb.

“It’s been forty years,” Ray said, words calm and warm. Her hand stayed on top of his, making sure he couldn’t pull away. “You’ve learned. You can control your powers. You don’t need to be scared anymore.”

Tears started to trail down his cheeks and he surged forward. Zarc’s free hand joined the other in grasping her face with desperation even as he pressed gentle kisses full of longing to her lips.

“Ray,” he rasped, shuddering as her arms wrapped around him. “ _Ray_.”

“I missed you,” she murmured, giving him kisses of her own. This time, no matter what happened, she wouldn’t let him go. “I love you.”

“I love you,” Zarc repeated back. They clung to each other, chaste kisses and reverent touches anchoring them and reminding them that this was real, that they were together.

“Welcome back.”

“I’m home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted on tumblr [here](http://moshimichi.tumblr.com/post/172040541771/day-2-seasons).


End file.
